Towing Mirrors for Outlander
I recently bought a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and have been looking for extension mirrors. Colt Cars, the manufacturers do not recommend any specific ones as they 'have not been tested' and the size and shape of the car's mirrors make it difficult to fit most makes. This email suggests a way of getting a good product to fit well, and might be of help to other Outlander owners.
I contacted Milenco and was advised to use Grand Aero 3 mirrors fitted to the bottom of the housings.
There were 2 problems with this advice but I have found a solution that might be of interest to users of, or potential users of, the Outlander. I have emailed Milenco with this solution as well.
The Outlander has automatic mirror folding when it is locked, it can be disable but it is difficult to justify this when modern car parking slots do not take into account the trend for wider cars.
The 2 problems were that if the clamps are fitted to the bottom of the mirror housings the clamp screws foul the door whenever the mirrors fold, but they do not foul the window if used at the top of the mirror housings. The second problem is that the standard Milenco Aero 3 fittings will not only allow the mirrors to fully fold no matter how you try to adjust them as the mirrors are not in line with the housings.
My solution was to fabricate a new arm for the mirrors, a relatively simple task, with a cranked section giving a 150mm offset. The tube is 1/2" to match the standard tube size and allow the standard clamps to be retained (I thought we metricated in the 70's!). I bought 2 lengths, 400mm long, of stainless steel tube (1/2") from Metals4U.co.uk and got them bent by a local plumber. I then had to position the Aero mirror units on them and finally drill a 3mm hole through to allow them to be attached (the ABS plastic housing is very soft so I used a marker to show where to drill)
With this arm and the mirrors clamped to the top of the housings the mirrors will fully fold even with the Aero's in place. I attach a couple of photos to show how it fits.
Hope this is of use to someone
Moderator Edit:
Post moved as not appropriate in the Story Section.